Checkmate
by Sapphira2
Summary: “Nothing enticed Richard more to do whatever he had to in order to win the next battle… then the possibility that he just might end up losing his war.” Kathleen’s thoughts at the conclusion of “The End of the Beginning”… Part 14 in Reflectio


"Checkmate" 

**Part Fourteen in the "Reflections" Series,**

**written**** by Sapphira**

**Short Story Based on the WB TV Series "Tarzan"**

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**Disclaimer: **Don't own any of it… not the characters, the music, or the tv series in any form… I am making no profit off of this, or ANY of my other fanfics… I'm writing it purely for my own enjoyment, and hopefully for the enjoyment of some of the fellow fans.

**Distribution: **If you want it, you can have it… just drop me a line and tell me where it is going… ;)****

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**Author's Note – **This is the fourteenth part in an on-going series of mine, and is the sequel to "I'm With You", "Lies", "Fallen", "Forever", "Hollow", "Nothing Thicker Than Blood", "Dangerous Parallels", "Breathe In", "So Are You To Me", "Choices", "A Similar Song", "It's You", and "Trust"… Although all of these stories CAN be read as stand-alone pieces, I do hope that you will take the time and read all of them in order, if you have not done so already… Enjoy!

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Summary – "Nothing enticed Richard more to do whatever he had to in order to win the next battle… then the possibility that he just might end up losing his war." Kathleen's thoughts at the conclusion of "The End of the Beginning"… Part 14 in Reflections Series… 

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Having followed Richard from the courtroom, Kathleen stood there in the middle of the hallway, watching him walk away. She was tempted to call out to him, but something told her he wouldn't turn around. Wouldn't stop. Just like always, she would only be trying to reach out to him in vain. And just like always, some things would never change, no matter how hard she tried. 

And her brother was simply just one of those things. Their relationship was the typical example of an impenetrable force coming against an unmovable object. Neither would ever give in to the other. 

But despite all of that, she had still wondered… she had still hoped against hope that maybe… just maybe…

But those fantasies had finally been destroyed in their entirety with the memory of their last confrontation. And the words that they had shared, she knew, would always echo deeply within her mind. Haunting her with the knowledge of just how far her brother had truly fallen.

_"… The more he runs, and the more wild and violent he behaves, the more he proves my case for me."_

_"Well, did you not hear me? You're in danger. This whole thing has gotten out of hand, you've become obsessed."_

_"Am I?"_

_"You're obsessed with controlling Greystoke, with controlling John, molding him in your own image. He's not the crazy one here, Richard. And don't you see? He is not going to stop fighting you. Look at the lengths he's gone to already. You can't keep treating him this way."_

_"How am I treating him? I'm **impressed** by him. I mean, the cunning that it takes to escape like that… So he makes a move… I counter move."_

_"It's just a game to you, isn't it? Okay, you make any move you want to, and I want you to know that I'm going to be there, too. I won't let you hurt John, no matter what."_

_"You sure you're up for it? Little sis? It's might get bloody… I'm not scared of John, but I'll take the necessary precautions, thanks... With John and me it's not a fight, you know. It's a fight. It's almost… **primal**."_

_"Animal metaphors.__ Cute. Just remember one thing..."_

_"What's that?"_

_"I can be a real **bitch**."_

She'd reached a point where she now honestly didn't think that there was anything humanly possible that could save Richard now. She had seen the look in his eyes right before she had departed his office. He was actually pleased with the knowledge that if he took on John, he would be taking Kathleen on as well. He liked the challenge it presented to have more than one threat. Apparently that all he had left to find enjoyment out of was some twisted idea of a game that he had concocted within his head. Probably because it was simply the only **_real_** challenge he had been confronted with for several decades. 

Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. Hadn't she thought that a thousand times in regards to Richard? This road may have been stretched before him long ago, but it had still been him that had taken that first step upon it. No one had forced him. How much of his humanity had he been willing to risk back then? How much had he understood? Or was it simply that he just hadn't cared anymore?

She would never know the answer to that, but she did know that the only one that could be blamed for what Richard had become, was Richard himself. Nobody else. 

She wondered what was going to happen next. As the old saying went, they may have won the battle, but the war had most certainly only just begun. 

Jane had told her what had happened between Richard and John, and although Kathleen wanted to be optimistic about whether or not it had been enough to convince Richard of the dangers of continuing to treat his nephew like some animal, she didn't think that neither her nor John was going to be that fortunate. 

Before his obsession had been based on a twisted sense of fascination and even, in some ways, love. Or whatever emotion Richard could use to substitute for it… But now that he had been humiliated, nearly killed, and out-maneuvered, she figured that the natural response from his end would be that fascination turning, **_morphing_** into a dangerous and unpredictable hatred. 

She had already seen what her brother was capable of when he was indifferent. She sure as hell didn't want to witness what would happen when he became enraged. 

They had defeated him, but she doubted very highly that he would just simply let all of this go. That he would let John go. Maybe he saw in John one last chance to be redeemed of some horrible sin. One that she had always feared in the dark, secret shadows of her heart that was quite possibly linked to the mysterious death of their brother and his wife. Maybe that was why he had kept searching through the jungle for the last two decades. Holding on to a dream that they might still be alive, so he would be able to come back from whatever dark hole he would have had to submit himself to in order to become a murderer of his own blood. She honestly didn't know.  But she did know that he had blown the one and only chance he had had with his nephew long ago. 

If he was trying to find forgiveness, then he was going to have to go somewhere else. Someone higher. Because after seeing the bruises criss-crossing over John's body from being strapped down like some animal, she knew then and there that he would never get it from her. 

She had been a little surprised about the maternal instincts that had welled up within her when she had seen those marks. The instinct to protect John at any cost like a lioness would with her cub. In a lot of ways, she had reached a point where she was almost viewing him as her own son. Even though she wasn't quite old enough to be his mother. At least, not an adult mother at the time of his birth.

Kathleen herself had never had any children, for she had never married. She had always been in the public eye, and as terribly jaded as it might sound, she had known early on in her life that she would never be able to marry, because she had known that she would never find anyone that would want her just for her. And she simply refused to go through the heartache of being with someone when she was always going to doubt whether or not his intentions were true. When she would most likely be divorcing that person within just a few years when the strain of trying to be comfortable with a lie became too difficult to bear, and the knowledge that if there were ever children, they would only be caught within the far too damaging emotional trauma that public separations viewed under the judgmental gaze of the media became. 

If just hadn't been worth it. She would rather be alone than to try and spend her life with someone who wasn't right for her. And finding Mr. Right when her face was recognized on every Continent gracing this planet just wasn't very easy. 

She had however, come to peace with her decision long ago. But when John had walked – well, more like staggered – through her door late that night, something inside of her had fallen into place. Something that she hadn't really allowed herself to notice that she missed.

John was pure. There was no agenda in his reaching out to her, for indeed, there hadn't exactly been very much 'reaching' on his part in the beginning. But whether or not he had liked it at the time, he had become her family.

And she would go through hell and back time and time again if that was what it took to keep him safe.

At first that had spawned the concern that maybe Jane was no different than the men that had pursued her for her money. That maybe all that the female cop saw was a big fat bank account at the end of all this. And yes, maybe there had been a twinge of jealousy at the beginning too, because Jane so obviously held a very powerful grasp over John's existence. But if there was one thing that Kathleen was good at, it was reading people. Seeing them for who and what they really were. Not what they pretended to be. 

If Jane was interested in the money, she would have allowed Richard to pay her off a long time ago. She had been snared by her connection to John long before she had found out how valuable he was. And she had been searching for him, seeking to find a way to save him, long before she had found out that he truly was, indeed, the heir to a trust fund valued in the billions.

Kathleen wasn't blind. She knew full well that the only reason John was even in this city – and still innocent of murder – was because of Jane. No matter how much John might have come to care for his aunt, his heart truly lay with Jane, and most likely always would.

She knew that John was deeply in love with the younger woman. But just how deeply was a particular subject she had only just recently received an answer on. It was the kind of love that she knew went far beyond first crushes of puppy love, or even the kind of love that most marriages were based upon. 

It was that incredibly rare, soul-binding kind of love that if he were to ever lose her, it would destroy something critical inside of him for the rest of his existence.

She had then begun to worry about what would happen if Jane became too frightened by what she was feeling with John, and that would, in turn cause her to pull away. Doing yet more damage to John's emotions. 

But despite Jane's instinctive yet needless fears in regards to the powerful emotions she had to be feeling every time she was around John, they had become incredibly close. Maybe not physically. Kathleen didn't think it had gone that far just yet. But they had developed an intimacy that many lovers never found even after having spent years together in the same bed. 

Jane had turned out to be much stronger than Kathleen had at first thought, and whether the younger woman knew it yet or not, she was bonded to John in a way she would never be able to recover from if she tried to leave him. The knife would cut both ways. A separation between them now would be far too destructive for both of them.

Jane had endured so much to be where she was now, at John's side. And it almost brought tears to Kathleen's eyes to know that her nephew would not be consigned to the same fate that she herself had. He had found his soul mate. 

And even though it may take a long time for them to work out the bumps, she had a strong premonition that they would still be together several years from now. What they shared was never going to fade with time.

Her thoughts strayed then for a moment, when she thought back to the look she had seen on Richard's face that had sent her after him in the first place. Back in the courtroom, when she had gone to John and kissed him on the cheek, and John had actually welcomed the contact, she had turned just in time to see that Richard had also seen it… and she didn't have that hard a time interpreting what his thoughts must have been at that moment. John had accepted something from her that he would never accept from his uncle… and for a brief moment in time, Richard just might have felt regret.

In a way, Kathleen pitied Richard. He actually thought that after everything he had done to John, that he still deserved that same connection with his nephew. 

In his mind, what he had done hadn't been evil. But therein lay the problem with her brother. He had long ago lost the ability to know the truth. He had long ago forsaken his right to see in black and white. 

Kathleen watched as Richard came to the doors leading outside. But then he surprised her. He turned his head and met her gaze. Knowing even before looking that it was her eyes that bore into his retreating back. 

He held their stare for a moment, his dark eyes unreadable as she raised her chin slightly. A muscle tightening in her slender jaw as her eyes narrowed a fraction. Unblinking.

His lips twisted at one corner humorlessly, and then he turned away. Pushing the door open with one hand and exiting the court house. The doors swinging soundlessly shut behind him as he disappeared from view.

Kathleen closed her eyes and shook her head. Knowing that although this particular game had ended in an unexpected checkmate, it probably wasn't going to be the last. It would be too much to expect Richard to stop now. He would retreat for a while, lick his wounds, and plot. And he would come back, stronger than ever.

Because the one thing that someone had to understand above all others where her brother was concerned was this… He didn't like to lose. 

And nothing enticed him more to do whatever he had to in order to win the next battle… then the possibility that he just might end up losing his war.

She turned when she heard movement behind her, and watched as John and Jane came into view. Looking for her. She couldn't help but smile when she saw the condition that their feet were in. The moment between those two was startling intimate and innocent all at the same time.

Regardless of what happened, Kathleen knew she would hold true to her promise to Richard back at his office the previous night. She would do whatever she had to do so John's future would be secure with the woman that he loved.

And if that meant crossing swords with Richard yet again, then so bet it. She would stand against him, and she would do it as many times as she had to.

For she knew as she watched Jane and John both walk towards her on bare feet – most likely a first to ever happen within this court house – that her reasons for doing so would be far too valuable to do anything less.

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Okay then… one more down, and only one more to go… 

I really do hope you enjoyed this little bit on Kathleen. Since "Nothing Thicker Than Blood" was obviously so popular, I knew that I wanted to do one more from Kathleen's point of view. Especially seeing how powerful Lucy Lawless' performance was in that last episode. She was definitely sizzlin'! 

The next (and last, unless through some miracle the series is brought back) part will be entitled "Show Me The River"… Hopefully it won't take me too long to finish that one. My Tarzan muse definitely needs a break for a couple of weeks after bringing all fifteen of these stories to you as fast as I did. 

Anyway, I hope you'll take a moment and let me know what you thought of "Checkmate"… Thanks for taking the time to read it!

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